ནི་ - ni - The Emphatic Particle

  ནི་ ni is a so called emphatic particle, it emphasizes the preceding statement with that which follows next. In rough initial translation you could add a colon (:) as a rough starting point before selecting something else more suitable. ནི་ emphasizes or isolates a single word or a phrase. For example, it shows that the word or phrase marked is the particular topic or subject of the sentence.

You will find this emphasis particle in commentaries where it marks something that is defined then going forward in the sentence. You also find it in verse form as a handy word to add another syllable to match the amount of syllables per line, in those cases it's seldom you need to translate it with anything specific.

Here are some examples of ནི་ in various shorter statements. Note how the translator has used various means to translate the emphasis, or leave it out all together.

བདག་ནི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་མཐོ་རིས་ལོངས་སྤྱོད་དང༌། །
dak ni gyalsi tori longchö dang
For my part, I do not seek dominion, higher realms,

དལ་འབྱོར་འདི་ནི་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྙེད་པར་དཀའ༔
daljor di ni shintu nyepar ka
This free and endowed human birth is very difficult to obtain.

དབང་བླང་དང་བླ་མ་བསྡུ་བསྟིམ་ནི་བླ་རྣམ་གཞུང་ལྟར་བྱ།
wang lang dang lama du tim ni la nam shyung tarja
Receive the empowerments and gather and dissolve the visualization as in the main section.

མཐར་ནི་བླ་མ་འོད་དུ་ཞུ། །
tar ni lama ö du shyu
Finally the guru melts into light.

རང་གཞན་དོན་ནི་རབ་བསྒྲུབ་ཕྱིར། །
rangshyen dön ni rab drub chir
In order to accomplish my own and others' aims,

ཅེས་པ་འདི་ནི་རྗེ་ཙོང་ཁ་པ་བློ་བཟང་གྲགས་པས་མཛད་པའོ། །
This was composed by Lord Tsongkhapa Lobzang Drakpa.

དང་པོ་ནི།
dangpo ni
First [very common with section lists, use a comma, new sentence, or colon]

དེ་ལས་ཡང་ནི་སྐྱེ་བ་ཡིན། །
de las yang ni skye ba yin/
There’s karma, and from that, rebirth.

སྐུའི་རྣམ་པ་ནི་བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས་རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་ཆེན་པོ།
kü nampa ni chomdendé dorjé chang chenpo
The form of his body is that of the exalted great Vajradhara.  

དེ་ནི་རྒྱུ་དུས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ། 
dé ni gyu dü kyi tawa
That is called “the view of the time of the cause,” 

བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། །
changchub bardu dak ni kyab su chi
I take refuge until I attain enlightenment.

འདིས་ནི་དམ་ཚིག་ཉམས་ཆག་དང༔
di ni damtsik nyamchak dang
This [practice] pacifies all breakages of samaya, 

རིན་ཆེན་དང་པོའི་ཀོང་བུ་ནི། །

rin chen dangpö kongbu ni

This lamp, made of the finest precious metal,